Hamas threatens to sue Abbas over Gaza remarks
Published today (updated) 17/10/2009 18:29
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=232817

Gaza - Ma'an - Hamas will file a lawsuit in Palestinian courts against
recent allegations launched by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that de
facto government leaders fled the Gaza Strip in ambulances during Israel's
war on the area over the winter.

Abbas first presented the accusation on Tuesday in a Jenin speech, and again
in Ramallah on Friday.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Az-Zahar announced preparations for a suit in remarks
made Saturday, one day after Abbas told the newly convened Fatah
Revolutionary Council that Hamas leaders had ignored his advice on signing a
new ceasefire deal after the six-month agreement between Israel and Hamas
ran out in November.

He told the more than 100 assembled members that "They [Hamas] kept accusing
us of compliance, while their leaders fled the Gaza Strip to Egypt in
ambulances."

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno Yaar, used the quote
to defend the country against South African jurist Richard Goldstone's
report on the Gaza war. He said that even Abbas admitted that "the Hamas
movement hid in basements."

"The leaders of Hamas ran away in ambulances to Sinai and left our people to
bleed," the president was quoted as saying by the ambassador on Thursday,
during the lead-up to the Human Rights Council's vote. "Every person here
knows that today's meeting is not about human rights, but... to make a point
to a domestic Palestinian audience."

On Saturday, Az-Zahar called for Abbas to name those who fled to the Sinai,
and noted he should be obliged to present evidence for what he termed such
outrageous claims.

He noted that the lawsuit would be separate from Hamas' consideration of the
Egyptian conciliation proposal, for which a delegation of members would head
to Cairo to discuss on Sunday.

"There are a few standing problems with the text of the agreement," Az-Zahar
said, and "we are ready to make an opportunity for all involved to create
the right atmosphere to sign the paper."